Summer!

"Summertime and the living is easy, fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high..."

Two days until summer, ladies and gentlemen! Time for lazy days at the pool, grilling out, sno-cones, baseball, and long evenings watching fireflies.

One of my favorite things about summer is the produce. Fresh peaches and watermelon and asparagus... yum! Dad kept a garden for several years when we were growing up and summer always meant tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes. There would always be so many they'd have to be eaten, given away, and stashed in the deep freeze for later. Then in the fall and winter he'd thaw them out for making the best spaghetti sauce and homemade chili.

My office has "summer hours" and mine started this week. Basically, you get assigned 3 weeks during the course of the summer where you can work 9 hour days Monday-Thursday and then get out a half day on Friday. Pretty sweet on Friday, but adjusting to getting up an hour earlier is always tough for me. My goal now is to get used to it this week so I can start getting up earlier and exercising in the mornings. We shall see how that pans out.

Another summer tradition starts this week - season tickets for the Municipal Opera (The "Muny") in St. Louis' fabulous Forest Park. I always enjoy sitting out under the stars watching a classic musical - it is often hot, but usually worth it!

We celebrated Father's Day yesterday at Mom & Dad's - pool time and appreciating the great guys in our lives. My Dad, Grandpa, brother and uncle were honored for being the wonderful fathers that they are.

Work has continued to chug along and keep me very busy. I am on a hiatus from travel for a few more weeks, then off to a meeting in Washington, DC in July. I have a LOT to get finalized before I go, so I know the next month is going to be crazy. I'm trying to work out going on a short vacation in August but we will see how that goes.

Hope the ice cream man stops at your house tonight!